We understand your a busy man so we would like to thank you for your time in answering these questions:-

What are your experiences in game development prior to this game?

Theelord wrote:I am a hobbyist programmer and have been for over 8 years. I am also the creator of the popular Warcraft 3 custom map “Warball”. Since I was a kid I have always been the one organizing people for teams, tournaments, parties etc… I always enjoyed creating games for others to enjoy, be it on paper or on the computer or any other medium I could think of.

What made you decide to develop this game?

Theelord wrote:I remember from the first day I learned about the concept of MMOs / MUDs I wanted to create this game. It’s not even so much the exact game I would want to play, but rather the most interesting and original concept I could think of for people to enjoy. I find it extremely interesting to throw thousands of people into a completely open world and let them make of it what they will. However, we also need to avoid anarchy, this is a game afterall. Most sandbox games do not understand how to balance this and what usually ends up happening is that you have a strange mixture of anarchistic, completely unchained PVP and then dev-built content, so the players have nothing to really fight over and no way to set rules that are either followable or breakable. No one is held to account for their actions and no one is interested in undertaking group actions. So in other ‘sandbox’ games you usually end up with lots of solo players with not much to do besides grief others.

What made you decide on the name factions?

Theelord wrote:It describes the premise of the game without fluff. The name is still not 100% decided upon honestly. maybe we will host a competition to find a new name or something

From your experience/knowledge of other MMOs' development cycles and teams, whats the optimum amount of devs that you think should be working on a full blown sandbox MMORPG?

Theelord wrote: I believe 10-15 commited devs would be an ideal amount.

Has there been any discussion as to whether this game with be F2P or subscription based ?

Theelord wrote:Some, but it is still too early to give too many details regarding this. Slightly leaning subscription based as it is the sandbox game norm at the moment.

If you do eventually choose to go F2P how would you get income ?

Theelord wrote:We have discussed this but would like to keep our ideas to ourselves at the moment.

If there is a cash shop, with items be mainly cosmetic or Pay2Win ?

Theelord wrote:cosmetic or possibly more options to gameplay, not pay2win.

Reading through the forums, I see a lot of neat ideas but everything put together, it sounds like a very complex game that would take a lot of time to produce. So are you taking steps to ensure that the vital parts of what constitutes an MMO are made first and other features are added later?

Theelord wrote:Yes, we are building the game around a central, custom built, MMO framework. We take the approach of roughing in most of the vital systems and expanding upon them as time goes on, this allows us to make sure that the systems will interact with each other well enough to support hundreds of concurrent players.

How are you planning on allowing players to decorate the interiors of their buildings?

Theelord wrote:Players will be able to place furniture on the ground, items on the walls, and possibly some items on top of furniture. We hope to have most items be functional. So if there is a bed in your home you will be able to use it to rest, a wardrobe could hold inventory, stoves could be functional etc… etc…

If we can decorate will it be like in EQ2, where you can place them wherever in the room? Or more like Runescape, where there are predetermined "hooks" you can place furniture?

Theelord wrote:Furniture should be place able anywhere inside a property you have rights to place it in.

How much variety will there be in crafting? For example, can I make my own type of desk for my house, or will there be premade desks that I follow preset recipes to make?

Theelord wrote:There will be premade recipes to follow, but there hopefully will be 2 or more different patterns per item so there will be some variety. Also, items can be made out of any material in that category. So if you were making a shield you would first choose the type of shield depending on how high your shield making skill is, then you would choose a pattern for the visuals, then you could make it out of copper or you could make it out of steel depending on what materials and skills you have available to you. It will look the same, but it’s effectiveness and durability will be vastly different depending on the materials, tools, and skill level used.

Can you give us any information on how territory control will work?

Theelord wrote:The details are still being finalized but it will go something like this: The terrain will be divided up into many sections, A player or faction will place a flag or statue or a similar marker which will attempt to claim that territory. If that claiming marker remains for a set amount of time (maybe 6 hours, maybe 3 days? Not sure yet) the territory is now under the factions or players control. It is important to remember that factions and players will most likely need to hire an NPC to guard the flag during this time.. They may even want to erect a fort or setup camp around the flag to guard it.

How many players per server are you thinking?

Theelord wrote:We are hoping for only one server and aiming for a concurrent user count in excess of 750.

When are you planning for an Alpha? (Sorry, had to XD)

Theelord wrote: Cannot speculate on this currently.

What was your first mmo you ever played?

Theelord wrote:DAoC

Are there any known MMOs/games you really hate?

Theelord wrote:Sure, but the ones I really hate I didn’t end up playing long enough to want to remember their names.

How many questions were you expecting to answer?

Theelord wrote:More than this, bring it on slackers…

Seems as you asked so nicely, its now time for the quick fire round - you have 40 seconds to answer as many as you can.

How old are you?

Theelord wrote: 28

Are you married?

Theelord wrote: Married to my beautiful wife Caren and have a 9 month old girl Charlotte

where do you live?

Theelord wrote: Suburban Chicago

if you move to another country, where would you go?

Theelord wrote: UK, I know the language and I could learn the accent and pretend I’m James Bond.

Do you get regular flu shots?

Theelord wrote: nope

Did you ever play runescape?

Theelord wrote: Nope, should I?

Whats your favorite fruit?

Theelord wrote: Nectarines

Boxers or briefs?

Theelord wrote: Boxer-briefs FTW

Cats or dogs?

Theelord wrote: Dogs, who came up with these questions??

Whats your favorite energy drink?

Theelord wrote: Mtn. Dew is as strong as I’ll go

Have you ever been arrested ?

Theelord wrote: Nope, I’m straight edge dog

What programming languages do you know/use?

Theelord wrote: C++ and VB

Whats your biggest accomplishment?

Theelord wrote: Hmmmmm lots of big ones I guess

What are your favorite movies and what was the part you liked best?

Theelord wrote: Snatch All of it

Do you believe in God or another supreme being?

Theelord wrote: Yes, I am a Christian.. wish I didn’t choose the s/n TheeLord when I was a kid, I feel bad using it now that I’m more mature lol

{ POST_SCORE }:

We understand your a busy man so we would like to thank you for your time in answering these questions:-

What are your experiences in game development prior to this game?

Theelord wrote:I am a hobbyist programmer and have been for over 8 years. I am also the creator of the popular Warcraft 3 custom map “Warball”. Since I was a kid I have always been the one organizing people for teams, tournaments, parties etc… I always enjoyed creating games for others to enjoy, be it on paper or on the computer or any other medium I could think of.

What made you decide to develop this game?

Theelord wrote:I remember from the first day I learned about the concept of MMOs / MUDs I wanted to create this game. It’s not even so much the exact game I would want to play, but rather the most interesting and original concept I could think of for people to enjoy. I find it extremely interesting to throw thousands of people into a completely open world and let them make of it what they will. However, we also need to avoid anarchy, this is a game afterall. Most sandbox games do not understand how to balance this and what usually ends up happening is that you have a strange mixture of anarchistic, completely unchained PVP and then dev-built content, so the players have nothing to really fight over and no way to set rules that are either followable or breakable. No one is held to account for their actions and no one is interested in undertaking group actions. So in other ‘sandbox’ games you usually end up with lots of solo players with not much to do besides grief others.

What made you decide on the name factions?

Theelord wrote:It describes the premise of the game without fluff. The name is still not 100% decided upon honestly. maybe we will host a competition to find a new name or something

From your experience/knowledge of other MMOs' development cycles and teams, whats the optimum amount of devs that you think should be working on a full blown sandbox MMORPG?

Theelord wrote: I believe 10-15 commited devs would be an ideal amount.

Has there been any discussion as to whether this game with be F2P or subscription based ?

Theelord wrote:Some, but it is still too early to give too many details regarding this. Slightly leaning subscription based as it is the sandbox game norm at the moment.

If you do eventually choose to go F2P how would you get income ?

Theelord wrote:We have discussed this but would like to keep our ideas to ourselves at the moment.

If there is a cash shop, with items be mainly cosmetic or Pay2Win ?

Theelord wrote:cosmetic or possibly more options to gameplay, not pay2win.

Reading through the forums, I see a lot of neat ideas but everything put together, it sounds like a very complex game that would take a lot of time to produce. So are you taking steps to ensure that the vital parts of what constitutes an MMO are made first and other features are added later?

Theelord wrote:Yes, we are building the game around a central, custom built, MMO framework. We take the approach of roughing in most of the vital systems and expanding upon them as time goes on, this allows us to make sure that the systems will interact with each other well enough to support hundreds of concurrent players.

How are you planning on allowing players to decorate the interiors of their buildings?

Theelord wrote:Players will be able to place furniture on the ground, items on the walls, and possibly some items on top of furniture. We hope to have most items be functional. So if there is a bed in your home you will be able to use it to rest, a wardrobe could hold inventory, stoves could be functional etc… etc…

If we can decorate will it be like in EQ2, where you can place them wherever in the room? Or more like Runescape, where there are predetermined "hooks" you can place furniture?

Theelord wrote:Furniture should be place able anywhere inside a property you have rights to place it in.

How much variety will there be in crafting? For example, can I make my own type of desk for my house, or will there be premade desks that I follow preset recipes to make?

Theelord wrote:There will be premade recipes to follow, but there hopefully will be 2 or more different patterns per item so there will be some variety. Also, items can be made out of any material in that category. So if you were making a shield you would first choose the type of shield depending on how high your shield making skill is, then you would choose a pattern for the visuals, then you could make it out of copper or you could make it out of steel depending on what materials and skills you have available to you. It will look the same, but it’s effectiveness and durability will be vastly different depending on the materials, tools, and skill level used.

Can you give us any information on how territory control will work?

Theelord wrote:The details are still being finalized but it will go something like this: The terrain will be divided up into many sections, A player or faction will place a flag or statue or a similar marker which will attempt to claim that territory. If that claiming marker remains for a set amount of time (maybe 6 hours, maybe 3 days? Not sure yet) the territory is now under the factions or players control. It is important to remember that factions and players will most likely need to hire an NPC to guard the flag during this time.. They may even want to erect a fort or setup camp around the flag to guard it.

How many players per server are you thinking?

Theelord wrote:We are hoping for only one server and aiming for a concurrent user count in excess of 750.

When are you planning for an Alpha? (Sorry, had to XD)

Theelord wrote: Cannot speculate on this currently.

What was your first mmo you ever played?

Theelord wrote:DAoC

Are there any known MMOs/games you really hate?

Theelord wrote:Sure, but the ones I really hate I didn’t end up playing long enough to want to remember their names.

How many questions were you expecting to answer?

Theelord wrote:More than this, bring it on slackers…

Seems as you asked so nicely, its now time for the quick fire round - you have 40 seconds to answer as many as you can.

How old are you?

Theelord wrote: 28

Are you married?

Theelord wrote: Married to my beautiful wife Caren and have a 9 month old girl Charlotte

where do you live?

Theelord wrote: Suburban Chicago

if you move to another country, where would you go?

Theelord wrote: UK, I know the language and I could learn the accent and pretend I’m James Bond.

Do you get regular flu shots?

Theelord wrote: nope

Did you ever play runescape?

Theelord wrote: Nope, should I?

Whats your favorite fruit?

Theelord wrote: Nectarines

Boxers or briefs?

Theelord wrote: Boxer-briefs FTW

Cats or dogs?

Theelord wrote: Dogs, who came up with these questions??

Whats your favorite energy drink?

Theelord wrote: Mtn. Dew is as strong as I’ll go

Have you ever been arrested ?

Theelord wrote: Nope, I’m straight edge dog

What programming languages do you know/use?

Theelord wrote: C++ and VB

Whats your biggest accomplishment?

Theelord wrote: Hmmmmm lots of big ones I guess

What are your favorite movies and what was the part you liked best?

Theelord wrote: Snatch All of it

Do you believe in God or another supreme being?

Theelord wrote: Yes, I am a Christian.. wish I didn’t choose the s/n TheeLord when I was a kid, I feel bad using it now that I’m more mature lol